A roundup of key economic and financial market news for those looking at spread betting the markets today. Barclays Q1 has missed analysts’ forecasts, pre-tax profit fell 9% to £1.655bn on total income of £7.4bn a decline of 8%.BP Q1 replacement cost profit fell to $5.481bn with debt levels up $2.3bn to $27.5bn. The oil giant said higher taxes impacted profit with effective tax rate for Q1 of 37%. The board has declared a dividend of 7 cents per share.The FTSE 100 is down 12.2 points to 6,057.1 in early trading.Those who took a long spread betting position on the the Dow Jones yesterday will be sitting pretty after the index rose 115.5 points to 12,595.4 points after positive earnings reports.The Nikkei 225 jumped 133.2 points to 9,691.8 a gain of 1.39%.Brent crude oil has opened down 28 cents to $123.86 per barrel on continued unrest in Syria and Libya.Game Group has reported EPS of 4.51p and will pay a final dividend of 3.9p per share. Group sales fell to £1.625bn a decline of £147m.Premier Oil has drilled a sidetrack well CRD-2X-ST on block 07/03 offshore Vietnam which has tested for gas. The shares are down 40p in early trading.Irish 10 year bond yields rose to 10.36% on talk of bond restructuring in the EU periphery.Johnson & Johnson has agreed to buy Synthes Inc for $21.3bn to boost its trauma product portfolio.S&P has lowered the rating outlook on Japan to “negative” commenting that the earthquake will add to Japan’s debt load. Remember to check back again later for more spread betting insight.

  Oh, and also a lesson why the Stop Loss is your Friend !

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